1. Field
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to monitoring and/or controlling blood-glucose levels in patients.
2. Information
The pancreas of a normal healthy person produces and releases insulin into the blood stream in response to elevated blood plasma glucose levels. Beta cells (β-cells), which reside in the pancreas, produce and secrete the insulin into the blood stream, as it is needed. If β-cells become incapacitated or die, a condition known as Type I diabetes mellitus (or in some cases if β-cells produce insufficient quantities of insulin, Type II diabetes), then insulin must be provided to the body from another source.
Traditionally, since insulin cannot be taken orally, insulin has been injected with a syringe. More recently, use of infusion pump therapy has been increasing, especially for delivering insulin to diabetics. For example, external infusion pumps are worn on a belt, in a pocket, or the like, and deliver insulin into the body via an infusion tube with a percutaneous needle or a cannula placed in the subcutaneous tissue. As of 1995, less than 5% of Type I diabetics in the United States were using infusion pump therapy. Presently over 7% of the more than 900,000 Type I diabetics in the U.S. are using infusion pump therapy. And the percentage of Type I diabetics that use an infusion pump is growing at an absolute rate of over 2% each year. Moreover, the number of Type I diabetics is growing at 3% or more per year. In addition, growing numbers of insulin using Type II diabetics are also using infusion pumps. Physicians have recognized that continuous infusion provides greater control of a diabetic's condition, and are also increasingly prescribing it for patients.
A closed-loop infusion pump system may include an infusion pump that is automatically or semi-automatically controlled to infusion insulin at times and in amounts based upon blood glucose measurements obtained from an embedded blood-glucose sensor in real-time. Closed-loop infusion pump systems may also employ delivery of glucose in addition to delivery of insulin for controlling blood-glucose and/or insulin levels in a patient.